Did you know?

If you’re looking to get your hands on an Amazon Prime subscription, but aren’t looking to put forth the $99 to get that done, then hurry on over to Amazon and get your credit card ready. Amazon just won some surprising Golden Globe awards thanks to its hit series Transparent, specifically for the show’s lead actor Jeffrey Tambor. Amazon’s breakthrough came at the 72nd annual Golden Globes. Since that was their official coming-out party as a broadcaster, that means Amazon is going to cut the price of a year of Prime to $72 for a year of Prime service.

Even if you’re not a big user of Prime’s Instant Video service, Prime is a great deal. I mean, free two-day shipping! That turns Amazon from a good place to shop for fun stuff to a great place to shop for pretty much everything. Especially if you like to buy in bulk for stuff like paper goods, detergent, or all the stuff that you need a steady supply of. As a person who has had Prime since the streaming video service began, it’s proven itself to be invaluable.

There are some really great deals there, particularly if you’re in the market for a new laptop, a Kindle Fire Phone, or some other sort of expensive gadget. Expect to save hundreds of dollars per device, depending on your gadget appetites, but there are also some other great deals. In particular, there are some very cheap gift cards and lots of fun accessories. Given that I’ve become a regular podcast guest on the Continuous Play/Film Strip podcast, I’m eyeballing the wireless bluetooth headsets quite hungrily.

Got any good deals I should be looking at? Feel free to comment below!

So far, I’ve gotten several free books through the service (I signed up when I was told about it), and there has been nothing but quality sent through the service. I can’t recommend it highly enough, which is why I’m spreading the word to you guys as we speak. I wouldn’t have written about the service if I didn’t think it was awesome, and it’s definitely awesome. (Disclaimer: I know Adams Briscoe and worked with him on PopFi.)

Please go sign up to SCIFIDEALS.com right now. You won’t get spammed or otherwise mistreated. However, you might find your free time is being spent reading instead of doing whatever else you were doing.

If you’re not familiar with the website Good Old Games, they’re a company that updates classic computer games and re-releases them in such a way that they are easy to buy, easy to download, easy to install, and easy to play on updated computers. No more compatibility errors; GOG takes care of all that for you and allows you to play some of the best games ever created for dirt cheap. Or, in some special cases, FREE. GOG has put Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics on their site for free, but you only have 11 hours or so left to claim your copies.

Perhaps most impressively, GOG purchases come not only with the game, but with a host of special features. Fallout 2 comes with the Fallout Bible, manual, avatars, original soundtrack, wallpapers, and other awesome special downloads for free. Once you buy a game on GOG, it’s free forever, and you can store the installation files for as long as you want. The whole thing is DRM free, and that makes GOG something really, really awesome in the video game world.

Just signing up for a GOG account yields free games (I got seven free games when I joined, plus the three free Fallout games). So if you haven’t checked out GOG, sign up and give it a look. Even if you don’t buy anything, you’ll get something for your trouble.

We here at the Shak family of websites are lucky enough to have companies who are willing to give things away to our readers. One such company is WholesaleKeychain.com, who have teamed with sister site Love Shak, Baby to give away not one… not two… but three free digital photo keychains! Who doesn’t like a free keychain that displays your digital photographs for the world to see?

Here’s how you can get in on the action. Head on over to Love Shak, Baby and read this post. It has the official rules, and it’s where you’ll need to comment, but I’ll also give you a quick rundown myself, so that way you’re prepared and can thank me properly when you win.

2. Head over to LSB and leave a comment on this post (using a valid email address), telling us which keychain you like and how you think they could be used as a great promotional tool.

3. Spread the word. Twitter, MySpace bulletins, blog posts, emails to your friends… however you want to get other people in on the action, pass it on!

The giveaway ends on June 12th, but if you need a digital keychain before then (like for Father’s Day), or you just want to buy one and not pin all your hopes on your ability to win the sweepstakes, then you’re in luck. When you pick up a keychain from Wholesale Keychains, just enter the code Shakadoo when you check out and you’ll get free shipping! How awesome is that?

Sunday, May 4, is the holiday known as International Star Wars Day. When you’ve not only got your own day, but you’ve got a day that is celebrated internationally, you know you’ve really got something special on your hands. If you don’t love Star Wars, there’s probably something wrong with you, like you’re a dirty stinking Trekkie!

Okay, I’m not here to pick geek fights with 30somethings who live in their parents basements, I’m here to talk about Star Wars Day and specifically, some free swag for Star Wars Day. Specifically, a free downloadable copy of Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Betrayal from Deep Discount. I haven’t read the book, or any of the others in the Legacy of the Force series, but when I was in high school I read EVERY Star Wars novel I could get my hands on. College kind of ruined that, but I’m trying to get back into reading again.

Another day, another giveaway from the gang over at Love Shak, Baby that I’m compelled to tell you all about. The rug give-away is still going on, so go enter that, but after you’re done, click here and go enter the give-away for $50 Macy’s Gift Cards! Seriously, all you have to do is go click on some links and leave a comment, and boom, you might have yourself an extra $50 to spend.

Isn’t the internet great? Not only are you registering to win free money, you’re also checking out a service that provides you free shipping when you order online merchandise from places like Target, Macy’s, Amazon, and Best Buy! Truly, between online shopping and free shipping, we’re entering a golden age of geekdom. All the fun of going to the mall, and none of the expense on gas, better values, and wider selection.

The only problem is shopping at home means no trip to the food court. Ah well, maybe soon they’ll figure out a way to have Amazon send you Chinese food. You can order pizza online, so I imagine that’s the next big step.

Have you filed your taxes yet? I sure hope you have. If not, you’d better hurry.

In honor of everyone’s least-favorite day, Walgreens is having a unique promotional give-away. For today only, you can get 15 free digital prints using the coupon from the Sunday circular. If you’re the type to do everything online, like I am, the magic code you need to get your free prints is the word TAXDAY. It’s limit one per household, and you have to submit the coupon with your order (though I’m not sure how they could do that if you use the online passcode, but whatever).

I’m getting some paper copies of the last photos the family took with our dear, departed canine companion, Billy, with a couple of random pictures. What might you get with your 15 free prints? Better hurry, the offer is for today only.

Look, you can’t just fill your house with electronics and expect things to be golden. Sure, we all love a huge TV and 13 video game systems from throughout the era of electronic home entertainment, but where are people going to hang out? How will you make them comfortable? Easy, you follow the advice of The Big Lebowski and get yourself a really nice rug to tie the room together.

Plaza Rugs has some awesome looking rugs, and since we all love free stuff, Shak Media is proud to give away a free rug to you, the lucky reader. All you have to do is head over here to the official entry thread and do the following:

* Leave a comment at the Shak In Style post saying which rug you want to win from the Jasmine Collection (a $329 value).

* Spread the word!

Even if you don’t win, don’t throw yourself off a building just yet. If you can’t live without that sweet rug (or any of these sweet rugs), then just use the code Shak10 to get a 10% discount when you check out! See? You can’t say I never did anything for you.

Make sure when you comment you tell those brown circle rug people they’re insane. That rug can’t possibly compete with the classic beauty of the black and white squares rug!

Back in my younger days, before we got the internet (and we were late in getting it), I was a serious reader. I’d go to the library, come out with a stack of 14 books, and be back next month for 14 more. I was a serious reading junkie, even though I wasn’t big on things like studying math or working out. I read the unabridged version of The Stand in one marathon session.

Then, I went to college. Upon entering the hallowed halls of the Academy, my love of learning was killed, and my desire to read books was smashed beneath the weight of Foucault and Derrida. I started college in 1999, and it wasn’t until I had some traveling to do that I actually picked up more than the occasional dog-eared copy of a Chuck Palahniuk or Stephen King novel before I actually tried reading a new author, and tried reading for fun once again. I’m reading the book now, actually, but I have something else to add to the list.

Harper Collins Publishers and author Neil Gaiman have gotten together and discussed things, and as an experiment, for the rest of the month (March) you can read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for free over here. It might not be your cup of tea, but I love his graphic novels, so I figure I’d pass it along to you guys. I’ve gotten rave reviews from friends, so maybe you and I can read it together and discuss it, Shaktronics reader.